B_Tour Festival

Between 26 and 28 June, B_Tour will host the third B_Tours festival in the German capital: B_Tours Berlin – Re-Placing the Periphery. The Berlin program is this year followed by a festival

Over the past two years B_Tour has organized festivals in Berlin and Belgrade (Serbia) featuring the work of local and international artists. These festivals have shown over 40 B_Tours in public spaces as well as introducing, through accompanying panel discussions (B_Talks), a range of themes relating to contemporary urban life such as the privatisation of public space, new forms of participation, and other trends in city development with the input of speakers from the worlds of science, media, and politics.

B_Tour engages the hybrid art of interdisciplinary tours to enable a direct exchange between the audience and the artist. B_Tour thus enables festival visitors to gain new perspectives on their city and to become inspired by their everyday surroundings. Many B_Tours make use of communication media that reflect our urban, mobile, and digital lifestyle.

Periphery

B_Tours Berlin – Re-Placing the Periphery presents 15 tours by 26 artists from 11 countries exploring the urban space from Westend to Marzahn and from Neukölln to Prenzlauer Berg while engaging with themes like gentrification, de-industrialisation, de-centralisation, stereotypes, and hierarchies. The artists, scientists, and architects taking part in this year’s Berlin festival investigate, through B_Tours and a program of B_Talks (public panels), the parameters of public discourse which determine the sociocultural, economic, and geographical ‘centres’ and ‘peripheries’ of an urban space and how these can be mobilized or replaced.

The tour Neukölln – A Better Place aims at engaging directly with the conflicts of gentrification and generating an affective response. Based on interviews with locals performance artist Wanda Dubrau has developed a tour reflecting their needs and visions. How can Neukölln become a better place? How can diverging needs and visions be accommodated?

The Strange Half-Absence of Wandering at Night directs our attention towards the role of women in our heteronormative society, connecting us to the narrations of factual and fictional women who assert their freedom of wandering and thereby challenge contemporary conventions.
Walking from Bahnhof Zoo to Stuttgarter Platz querstadtein’s Dieter Bichler introduces us to the challenges of Homelessness in West Berlin. How do we as a society treat a marginalized group like the homeless?

The daytime tours are accompanied by evening panel discussions: B_Talks aim at making largely academic discourses on city development accessible to a broader public and at creating a platform for civic dialogue on urban issues.

B_Talk #1 – Re-Placing the Periphery contextualizes the festival’s theme, inviting expert artists and scientists to discuss challenges related to the terms “periphery” and “centre”. The panel will also introduce innovative approaches to creating social spaces. It will take take place on June 9 at 7pm at Prachtwerk (Ganghoferstr. 2, 12043 Berlin-Neukölln).

B_TALK #2 – Touristification! New ideas for sustainable tourism and B_TALK #3 – Move your Kiez! Young people shaping their city are scheduled for the 27 and 28 of June.

Movement in Urban Space

B_Tours Leipzig – Movement in urban space is presented by B_Tour and Tanzarchiv Leipzig e.V. in cooperation with Schaubühne Lindenfels, Schauspiel Leipzig, LOFFT, Jewish Week Leipzig, and Leipziger Hörspielsommer. Between July 2 and 12, artists from 30 different countries including Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Austria, Brazil and Ecuador will show 13 tours with individual points of departure in Leipzig. The subjects of the tours will be contextualized through a series of film screenings called Urban Narratives and through four B_Talks.

Through a nighttime expedition called Nightwalkers – Auf den Spuren der Arbeiter(alp)träume the group friendly fire explores the dreams and nightmares of those individuals once collectively referred to as “lumpenproletariat”. Starring as city registrars, archaeologists of labour and ghost hunters the performers invite the audience to join them as they wander through the histories and futures of the 20th and 21st centuries.

The Monday Walks follow the route of Leipzig’s 1989 Monday demonstrations around the Stadtring. Based on conversations with witnesses to the historic demonstrations and in collaboration with local students plan b has created a collective audio tour that follows the original route of the walkers. The tour engages the audience in reflections on how urban spaces can be reclaimed as public spaces, where basic democratic rights can be asserted, and how political action can unfold today.

Tanz aller – Ein Bewegungschor investigates the relationship between dance and politics. The group LIGNA re-examines the almost forgotten heritage of movement choirs: a performative social practice dating back to the 1920s that involves both professional dancers and laypersons. Tanz aller aims at revitalizing this tradition and demonstrating its emancipatory potential while experimenting with possibilities for collective movement in today’s highly individualized western society.

Four panels comprising politicians, journalists, artists and scientists will discuss the questions and potentials raised by the tours in a series of B_Talks accompanying the festival. B_Talk #1 – Art and Activism in the City will take place on the July 3 at Schaubühne Lindenfels’ Grüner Salon, B_Talk #2 – Urban Sounds: Imaginary Spaces and B_Talk #3 – Creative Capital(ism): Cultural Sustainability in City Development on July 4 and 8 at Schauspiel Leipzig and B_Talk #4 – Tracing Histories of the Public Space in Leipzig on July 12 at the café PILOT.

Where:
Different locations in Berlin and Leipzig.

More information on the B_Tour website: www.b-tour.org.

Tickets:
Available soon at the festival hubs in Berlin and Leipzig as well as online through Eventbrite. More information on the B_Tour website: www.b-tour.org.

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